“the mountain wins again”

The Mount Wilson Trail Race was yesterday in Sierra Madre. As always, it was a great event with lots of community involvement and familiar faces and food and drink and beautiful weather… and one big mountain to climb.

The day started off early riding east down Huntington, racing the sunrise over the mountains. That was actually a really nice part of the day. Totally empty and cool. Just me and Mindful Mule spinning along quietly, making our way to the start.

The field in this year’s race seemed to be a lot more spread out than normal or maybe I was just running in a lucky gap, but I had very few people around me for much of the race.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t take advantage of the extra space to move forward for a better time. I just couldn’t get myself together on this one. On the way up, I spent a lot of time at redline. And on the way down, where I can normally make up a lot of time, I was pretty tentative about my footing – probably a sign of old age. I kept saying to myself, just live to run another day. I really couldn’t be bothered to risk anything for a better time stamp: 1:43.

I don’t know what it is about that mountain but I can never seem to master it. The mountain will always win. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but hopefully circumstances and training will align for a slightly smoother run next year. I can hardly wait…